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Cybernetics and Systems Theory in Management: Tools, Views, and Advancements provides new models and insights into how to develop, test, and apply more effective decision-making and ethical practices in an organizational setting.
The logic underlying decisions, and decision support systems, depends fundamentally on our assumptions about, and models of, the organizations in which these decisions are made. In this monograph, Dr. Fred Waelchi, a DSMC Professor of Management, suggests that current systems models of the organization are incomplete and defective, and that implicit use of these models may corrupt the decision process in our organization. Dr. Waelchli proposes a cybermetic model of the organization, derived from the work of W. Ross Ashby and Stafford Beer, that resolves the difficulties with the existing system models, and establishes a methodical foundation for Peter Drucker's major premise that the organization exists fundamentally to create useful change in society. Keywords: General systems theory.
Managing the Complex is an ambitious title - and it would be an audacious one if we were not to begin with a frank admission: to date few to none of us have a skill set which includes managing the complex. We try various things, we write about others, and we wonder about still others. When a tool, perspective, or technique comes along which seems to evoke success, we emulate it probe it and recoil at the all too often admission that it was situation and context which afforded success its opportunity, and not some quality intrinsic to the tool perspective or technique. Indeed, if the study of complexity has done anything for managers, and for those who espouse managerial theory, it is in providing a ‘scientific foundation’ for the notion that context matters. Those who preach abstract ideas have then to reconcile themselves to the notion that situation and embodiment matters. Those who believe in strong causality and determinism are left to wrestle with the role of chance, uncertainty, and chaos. Those who prefer to argue that men move history are confronted with the role of environment and affordances, while those who argue the reverse are left to contend with charisma, irrationality of crowds, and the strange qualities we know as emotions. A series on complex systems has less ambitious goals to contend with than this. Such a series can deal with classifications, and categories, and speak of ‘noise’ as if it were not the central focus of the problem. Managing the complex is about managing ‘noise’ or perhaps we should say it is about ‘dealing with’ ‘accepting’ ‘making room for’ and ‘learning from’ ‘noise’. The articles in this volume and in volumes to come will each be considered as ‘noise’ by some and as ‘gems’ by others, but we hope that practicing managers and academics alike will find plenty of fuel to drive their personal explorations into understanding, and perhaps even managing, the complex.
Successful control of performance in a complex business organization, this book argues, depends on whether "policy decision taken in the ordinary course of business" follow "guidelines of organizational cybernetics and systems theory." Empirical evidence for the book's position was manifested in General Motors' success in surpassing the performance of Ford, formerly the industry leader, in the period 1918-38. The designers of the GM system anticipated--by their actions--the work done by theorists since the 1940's. GM's recent problems, the book argues, are a result of the departure from the approach. The book starts with a theoretical introduction to the system-design-for-performance-control (SDPC) model as applied to business organizations, defining its salient elements. From organizational cybernetics the model takes such "steermanship" concepts as essential variables, requisite variety, temporary decomposability, amplified control, and ultra-stability. From systems theory the model takes the major roles and settings in the SDPC scenario: clients, designers, and decision makers; system, environment, and components; performance measures and resources. The seven phases of the SDPC model are introduced in the light of work by various pioneer theorists. In developing the seven phases of the SDPC model, with a chapter devoted to each, empirical evidence is taken chiefly from the automobile industry, with emphasis on General Motors and Ford--evidence presented more extensively in the author's GM Passes Ford, 1918-1938--but also incorporates comparative examples from other corporations and industries. Theoretical insights are drawn from the work of many noted analysts. The two final chapters show, first, how generally any corporation's system design is related internally to departments and divisions and externally to the economy and society; second, how specially General Motors's and Ford's acceptance or rejection of sound system design has resulted in successful or unsuccessful performance. Focusing on the key automobile industry, and yet ranging widely in its sources of insights and examples, this book will stimulate creative thought in both students and practitioners of business management and policy-making.